I’m fishing all evenings this week as my mornings have been dedicated to assisting at our church’s Vacation Bible School.  This evening I had the pleasure of fishing one-on-one with Kenyon Sims.

Kenyon had never stepped aboard a boat nor caught a fish before our trip together this evening.  He made up for lost time, catching 46 fish tonight!

I first met Kenyon through his grandmother, Rosemary Jenkins, while my wife and I were manning a booth at an end-of-school-year expo hosted by one of our local elementary schools.  The school invited those who offered kid-focused summer programs to advertise at the event, and Kenyon’s grandma signed him up for a fishing trip on the spot. Today I also met his mom, Courtney Jenkins, as she dropped him off at the boat ramp.

We started off in search of white bass, hoping to find schools that were suspended which we could downrig for, or schools that were bottom-oriented that we could vertical jig for.

We found suspended white bass willing to bite in 3 distinct areas this evening, but, only at sunset did we find any holding tightly to the bottom in a situation where working a slab would be effective.  We therefore downrigged for the entire trip save the last 20 minutes or so.  We were rigged up with a tandem rig and a 3-arm umbrella rig, each equipped with Pet Spoons

Kenyon was like a sponge absorbing all the new input coming his way, and was able to duplicate what I showed him right away, which enabled him to be very successful.  At one area we fished, the action got hot and we boated fish #14, 15, 16, and 17 in rapid succession.  Feeling pretty confident at this point in his ability to rig the line and to fight the fish, Kenyon exclaimed, “I’m on a roll now!”.  I just affirmed that and we kept the teamwork going.

In the last 20 minutes of the trip, we found some congregated, bottom-hugging white bass positioned on a ledge and used 3/4 oz. white TNT180 slabs to provoke these fish into biting.  We landed our last 3 fish of the night using this tactic and then headed on in to meet mom on time.

For our efforts tonight we landed 46 fish including 43 white bass, 1 channel catfish, 1 largemouth bass, and 1 freshwater drum.  I enjoyed fishing with Kenyon — he’s a very articulate, personable and respectful young man, now with a new interest in the outdoors (and 2 jealous siblings who, I suspect, may be coming out before long!).

 

TALLY = 46 FISH

 

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 4:30pm

End Time:  8:30pm

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start:  93F

Water Surface Temp:  86.8F

Wind Speed & Direction:  ENE11, shifting and fading to SE5-6

Sky Conditions:  Hazy skies with 10% cloud cover.

Other: GT=0

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area  1419 Downrigging for white bass

**Area  910/1133/914 Downrigging for white bass

**Area 863 Downrigging and smoking slabs for white bass

 

 

Bob Maindelle

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Salado, TX

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com